1)Philadelphia Phillies – explosive offense plus they added stud Roy Halladay – Doc should enjoy feasting of NL hitting after spending all of his previous time in the slugger infested AL East – the NL is theirs to lose

2)NY Yankees – neck and neck with Boston for title of Best Staff in Baseball – the Yanks bats put them over the top, however – the Sox can’t compete with Tex, ARod, Granderson, Jeter and company

5)Tampa Bay Rays – Most of the pieces are still in place from their World Series run a couple seasons ago, but David Price is the key, his improvements (or lack thereof) will be echoed by the club

6)Seattle Mariners – Simply put, they had the best offseason of any other team.Signing Cliff Lee and Chone Figgins were huge.The top of that lineup features Ichiro and Figgins??Then you’re faced with a 1-2 of Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee??Seattle should cruise to the AL West crown

7)LA Dodgers – the best young talent in baseball – assuming their pitching holds up, those young bats (plus Manny’s old one) should keep Torre’s Dodgers in the hunt all summer

8)Colorado Rockies – had an incredible finish to last season….and now Jeff Francis returns – should be a great race between LA/Colorado/SF for that division

9)Minnesota Twins – the M&M boys should be at it again – Mauer and Mornueau are beasts – and as per usual, they’ll find just the right mix of pitching and defense to quietly win another AL Central crown

10)Atlanta Braves – this staff is starting to send the same kind of fears Rockin’ Leo’s used to in the 90s – Tommy Hanson will be a star, and Tim Hudson says his arm feels better than it has in years – as long as Jair Jurrjens shoulder issue is minor, these guys could contend now – of course, they’d need almost everything else to go right and an MVP-type season out of Nate McClouth

I'm looking for ideas here, people -- Personally, I'm not sold on David Freese....so is free agency the answer? If so, who?? Hank Blalock? Joe Crede? Felipe Lopez? LOTS of questions there. Lopez seems the safest choice, but certainly lacks the 'pop' that you would like at a corner infield spot. Crede is an injury risk, having gone through 3 back surgeries. Blalock is only 29, but struggles against lefties and has had injury issues of his own.

So who is it?? Is there a guy down on the farm that's ready? Let's hear it Cardinal Nation!